As has become a common feature of the Albanian election campaign period, the government has gone on a spending spree with numerous public projects expected to be finished “just in time” for the elections. For example, in Tirana the renovated Skënderbeg Square is expected to be inaugurated a week before citizens will go to the polls.
Although in previous years this trend was only visible through the increased activity of public works throughout the country, public procurement data gathered by Open Procurement Albania allow us to actually get a sense of the remarkable increase in public money spent since March, with investments more than doubled in comparison with 2016, to 6,079,750,244 lekë (~€45 million).
This additional spending cannot be explained by the financial situation of the government, rather, these investments are timed in such a way that they bear their fruits on elections day.
